Walking out of the catacombs felt like you were finally out of a twelve-hour shift as a miner. Considering that Dan was a bit of a miner himself – if you count how many pieces of stone he carried away from there – the comparison was quite appropriate.

Taking the bones of the withered skeleton along with his armor, he left the first floor with a light heart, reminding himself to draw a map of the place later.

Dan was disappointed that his way of getting rid of the undead had cost him a withered skeleton skull, but the deed was already done. And he was not going to spawn The Wither any time soon. He couldn't do that for the sake of one advancement.

Just thinking about the things, he would have to do to fulfill some of them made his head hurt.

'They don't even make a jingle when I finish one, what's the point of doing them?' He complained in his own head, but he quickly sobered up when he remembered the old Enderman's words. 'Right. So I won't get killed by The Corrupted One.' He had a couple ideas of what, or who, The Corrupted One could be, none of which he liked.

But now was not the time to think about it. Dan chose to leave the catacombs on his feet instead of teleporting. That almost non-existent pride that still lived in his soul demanded proof that he hadn't run away like a coward.

So, he did just that, coming out of the dark dungeon and locking every door behind him so that nothing terrible could get out.

Crawling out of the hole in the wall, for a second Dan thought the eyes of the statues in the Chamber of Secrets were burning, but as soon as he blinked, the mirage was gone. Without giving it much attention, he walked across the rotten bridge, but he had to stop when he saw something unexpected on the floor.

A small puddle of slime spread across the floor, right at the end of the bridge, as if a slime had died right there. But that didn't stop Dan, he was stopped by a long trail of slime that led to the water left in the room.

"Some slime came out of the catacombs? I'll have to remember to close the doors behind me on a regular basis, otherwise I won't live for long."

Retracting this piece of information to the back of his mind, Dan became invisible and teleported to a deserted corner of the medical wing that Madame Pomfrey had set under a notice-me-not charm specifically for his unannounced visits. 

Sitting down on the chair that was conveniently hidden here, Dan finally relaxed and dropped his backpack on the ground. The semi-molten red key was in his hands, purple eyes staring at the piece of metal, trying to resolve yet another dilemma.

A repair spell could help him here, but only if the key was not of a magical nature in itself. Then a common spell will do more harm than good. Magic items could only be repaired by master craftsmen, in this case, only a magical blacksmith would be able to help him out.

Frowning a little, Dan twisted his wrist and muttered "tempus" softly, causing translucent numbers to appear on the back of his hand, showing him the exact GMT time. According to his spell, it took him five hours to reach the end of the first floor and climb back up. The result was not the worst, especially considering that two hours were spent only on the descent and ascent.

"Mr. Khromov? Why didn't you say you were here?" Madam Pomfrey's stern voice sounded nearby.

Dan looked up from his "watch" and smiled at the woman, which likely looked least unpleasant on his face.

"Good evening, Madam Pomfrey. I'm only here to check, no major injuries this time. Just a bruise or two on my ribs."

The healer nodded and began to run her wand over his body, muttering incantations under her breath. "Good. If only more people were as conscious about their health as you are, I'd have a lot less work to do."

"Probably," he allowed.

Dan didn't say that he only came here because he knew he would be in trouble if he chose to skip this visit. Well, also because his chest hurt like hell, but that was irrelevant.

As a result, Dan was given some anti-swelling paste – on a dry basis – mixed with painkillers, into his hands and then sent to rest in a hospital bed. Apparently, the Healer still didn't trust him not to overexert himself. Dan didn't mind, he was tired from today. 

After several close calls with death in just a few hours, he didn't dare even think about serious matters. Instead, his thoughts returned to an interesting question he asked himself after first using the Crafting Table. 

'I think Luna will be happy if she manages to make new artifacts with her own hands.'

So, after all his bruises were covered with ointment, he lay down on the bed and fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.

---

Madam Pomfrey sent a paper airplane with a short message to her colleagues, her face a frown. You had to look at the only occupied bed in the medical wing to understand the source of her excitement.

With Danil arriving at Hogwarts, all teachers found themselves with more work and problems. Transfer students always brought with them a pinch of chaos, what can be said about special cases like Danil? The last time she had this much work was when Lupin was still a student.

But Pomfrey wouldn't be a healer if she was afraid of problems. She preferred to solve them. With Danil being such a… special student. His problem was not so easy to solve.

A boy who was cursed to look like a monster for the rest of his life. It wasn't like lycanthropy – it wasn't a disease at all – that brought suffering only for one week every month, it was more akin to vampirism. One misstep and the teenager's life took a turn for the worse.

Pomfrey couldn't imagine how terrible it was for his mind. Such changes didn't pass without a trace, becoming only worse with time.

That is why she reached out to the Heads of Houses for help. Each of them was a master in his field and had vast experience in a variety of things.

Minerva, as an expert in human and living matter transfiguration and Filius, as an expert in the theory of magic, worked together with Severus to narrow the circle of curses that could transform a person in this way. Bathsheda sometimes offered her advice on runes and some… darker rituals to Severus.

And Pomona offered her help if anyone saw that the pressure was starting to get to the young Khromov.

Of all the professors in the castle, Pomona was probably the most knowledgeable in muggle psyk- psychology. The head of Hufflepuff began to study the new science in order to better understand her students, and pretty soon it became her new passion.

When the curfew began, Pomfrey closed the medical wing for a moment and headed to the staff meeting room, knowing that all four Heads of Houses were already waiting for her there. She always came last.

Entering the office, she took her seat and looked around at the colleagues who were present today. 

Severus and Minerva sat opposite each other, Pomona on the left side of the Head of Gryffendor, and Flitwick on the right of the Head of Slytherin, leaving her a place right between the four, as their unoffitial – how muggles called them, again? Program leads? Something similar, anyway. 

"Thank you for making the time for this meeting again." She said, knowing just how buisy everyone were. Especially before the first holiday in the new academic year.

"We've already talked about this, Poppy, the health of the students is our worry too." Filius smiled, sitting on a high chair, his eyes flickered towards Severus for a moment in accusation. 

Poppy couldn't help but look at the man with displeasure, too. From the first day, he made it quite clear to everyone that he didn't care about Danil and his survival. The only reason he was helping with their research at all was Dumbledore's orders. 

Of course, he didn't say anything directly, but his attitude was enough to understand his position. Who uses their own students as a source of potion ingredients?!

"You said you had news, Poppy." Minerva reminded her, preferring not to sit in uncomfortable silence any more than necessary.

Sighing heavily, Poppy nodded. "Some bad ones, I'm afraid. Mr. Khromov came to the medical wing a few hours ago, giving me the opportunity to conduct another scan of his magical signature… It has changed again."

The uncomfortable silence returned with a vengeance; the weight of the words fell on the shoulders of the professors.

"Did you let the boy know about this?" Pomona asked softly, her face full of regret. 

"Not yet. But I'll have to tell him soon. Every day he becomes more of a creature, losing whatever wix blood he has. His magic changes to fit his new body." Taking another deep breath, she continued. "If everything continues as it is, then in three years he will fully transform into a creature – physically and magically. I can only guess the consequences of such a thing, but I would say it wouldn't be that different from a Maledictus."

Maledictus. The closest curse that fit Dan's situation. 

It was a curse on the family blood that was passed down from mother to daughter. It slowly turned the women into animals, depriving them of even a shard of their sanity.

But here was the problem. Dan was already stuck in a body that wasn't his, but he still retained his consciousness. Will this continue or will he slowly go insane? No one knew that.

"Maledictius would be a blessing for the boy. Losing his mind…" Severus said, his tone as if he was talking about the weather. "Although, I don't think much would've changed."

"Severus." Minerva interrupted him, her lips pursed and her gaze set in a glare. "Do you need to insult all your students?"

"Only the dunderheads who deserve it." He sneered. 

"Please, there's no need to argue about this right now." Pomona interrupted their conversation. "We'd better discuss the current findings in his case now."

"Then I'll start." Flitwick cleared his throat and levitated a huge scroll onto the table.

Poppy took out her own scroll and enchanted a quill to take notes for her. Tonight was going to be a long evening.

---

Somewhere deep under Hogwarts, in a tunnel full of water and mud, floated a tiny green slime with black dot eyes. Its mind was in disarray, full of confusion and broken memories. Didn't it jump to the surface level? Why was it here? 

Spinning on the spot, the slime looked around, trying to find a place for itself to rest. It didn't want to drift in the water even longer than it had already done, precious time was lost! During this lost time, it could have already made contact with humans!

Pushing his clumsy body in a random direction with difficulty, the slime continued on its way. Its dream still unbroken and alive, just like it was! 

But after a while, the slime stopped, what was in front of him was hard to ignore. A huge snake, hundreds, if not thousands of times larger than the biggest of the slimes, was lying at the bottom of the underwater cave with a huge hole in its head. It was obvious that the snake had died relatively recently – or was very well preserved – but for the slime, the time wasn't so important.

What was more important was that it had found a new suit! In the body of a snake, it will be much easier to get to the surface than now! 

With another happy hop in the water, the slime swam to big Mr. Big Snake, not even noticing that an ominous atmosphere was flowing around the corpse.